


Love you good and strong (while our love is good and young)

by wintercreek



Category: Firefly
Genre: Community: femslash09, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-07-19
Updated: 2009-07-19
Packaged: 2017-10-05 17:14:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/44075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wintercreek/pseuds/wintercreek
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They play a game sometimes, one Kaylee learned growing up on Bennington. It's not quite right to call it "Anywhere But Here" because there's nowhere Kaylee'd rather be than on <i>Serenity</i>. But the name is also the rules, and a game where every round ended in Kaylee saying "<i>Serenity</i>" would be mighty boring anyhow.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love you good and strong (while our love is good and young)

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Anatratrope for betaing.

It ain't that Kaylee thinks this'll be forever - she's not given to self-deception and she knows that Inara loves her work, same as Kaylee loves hers. Everyone's got an aptitude, her momma said, and everyone should be free to follow it. It's more that Kaylee knows that now is what you've got, so you gotta live in it.

Kaylee don't need forever with Inara anyway. It's enough to share little pieces of time with each other, between working and flirting and what all else fills their days. She likes the things Inara can teach her, likes the ways Inara can make her feel, likes the confidences they whisper in each other's ears. She'll go on liking them as long as they can be freely given and received. All good things come to an end somehow; the ending doesn't have to spoil what comes before it, though.

They play a game sometimes, one Kaylee learned growing up on Bennington. It's not quite right to call it "Anywhere But Here" because there's nowhere Kaylee'd rather be than on _Serenity_. But the name is also the rules, and a game where every round ended in Kaylee saying "_Serenity_" would be mighty boring anyhow.

Tonight they're giggling softly, tipsy off the raspberry wine Inara's last client tried to woo her with. They don't have to worry too much about being quiet when they're out in Inara's shuttle, but even sitting out here they could wake somebody if they really get worked up. Kaylee presses the back of her hand to her mouth, swallowing the last of her laughter, and then smiles at Inara. "Anywhere but here," she says.

"Mmm, anywhere but here." Inara looks down for a moment, thinking, and Kaylee admires her made-up eyes. Inara always looks so lovely. When she lifts her eyes again she says, "Sihnon."

"Ooooh, Sihnon. Tell me about it, 'Nara." They seldom go to the core worlds, and Mal's dislike for them doesn't stop Kaylee's curiosity one bit.

"It's beautiful," Inara says, voice low and soft with memory. "An ocean of light. In the day it's almost too much to bear - when the sun is high, all the gold gilding on the roofs is overpowering. But at night, that's when she really shines. The streets are strung with fairy lights, a canopy of them woven back and forth, and every corner of every building holds a lantern. Some people say that when Sihnon was founded, her people were grieving Earth-that-was, and in their grief they clung to the old proverb: 'It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.' And so she is a world of candles and lights in the windows. A beacon for the weary and the heartsick."

"And that's why the Companion Training House is there, right?" Kaylee smiles. "To train them as comfort the weary and the heartsick."

"You might say that, yes." Inara pours them each a touch more wine and the heady smell of raspberries and alcohol rises to Kaylee's nose. She can feel her cheeks warm, pinked already by the wine, as she takes another sip. "I'd like to take you there someday, Kaylee," Inara says.

"Me? On Sihnon?" Kaylee shakes her head a little, remembering past brushes with fancy society. "I don't know."

Inara, always seeming to know what Kaylee's not saying, leans forward to touch Kaylee's hand. "You wouldn't be fending for yourself, you know. I'd be there with you, to explain whatever was strange. It was my home for most of my life. It's a part of me I could share with you in a way I could never do with a client. Those born to the high life can't see its small delights, you know. But you would - you find delights everywhere."

Kaylee turns her hand over and laces her fingers through Inara's. "You say the sweetest things in the nicest ways," she whispers as she leans in. "I'd like to find some delight in you."

Inara's lips are soft under Kaylee's, and her eyes are big and dark before they flutter closed. It don't sully this for Kaylee to know how skilled Inara is - Zoe asked once if it bothered Kaylee to know that Inara'd trained in the arts of pleasure-giving, if it made her feel less genuine, and Kaylee had just shaken her head. Knowing how ships worked, how _Serenity_ worked, only improved Kaylee's connection to her. That Inara knows about the workings of touch and love-making and the ways of the human heart is reassuring to Kaylee. It's like her daddy always said: you find the best ones you can to trust with what's precious to you. Same for people as for ships, Kaylee figures.

Kaylee slides her callused hands up Inara's arms to her shoulders, marveling at the glide of soft, smooth skin under her fingertips. Inara's breath carries the tang of fruit and her hair smells like sandalwood from the incense she burns. Kaylee's a little light headed from the combination, but that's the way she likes it.

Carefully they undress each other, Inara comfortable with the snaps and zips of Kaylee's coveralls and Kaylee's fingers dexterous in the winding of Inara's sash. It took longer to learn this than it did to suss out _Serenity's_ workings, for true, but they are both known and dear to Kaylee now. Kaylee'd never thought to find her freedom and her home in two ways at once; she's so glad she did.

Breathless with kissing and bare to the waist now, Kaylee lays her grease-smudged hands on Inara's perfect breasts and teases her nipples, light flickers that interrupt Inara's attention to Kaylee's left ear. Inara moves her mouth down along Kaylee's neck and Kaylee feels bright inside. She might glow like the fireflies that danced over the prairie summers on Bennington.

Inara reclines, slowly, so slowly, and draws Kaylee down with her. They kiss there, on their sides in the luxurious silk sheets, hands tracing absent patterns on each other's skin. Little by little they shed the rest of each other's clothes and twine their legs together a bit as Inara traces Kaylee's rib cage and Kaylee runs roughened fingers over Inara's smooth backside. Kaylee's hands make it south first and she touches Inara's soft, wet folds. Inara moans, low in the back of her throat, and her hands tighten on Kaylee's hips. Kaylee hums with pleasure and slips two fingers into Inara and crooks them toward her sweet spot. It's easy and so satisfying to smooth her thumb over and over Inara's clit, to hear her gasp, little high-pitched noises as Kaylee takes her higher. When Inara comes, Kaylee smiles and presses her thumb down, gentle but irresistible, until she draws forth a second wave of tremors. Inara touches her wrist to let her know that it's enough, just this side of too much, and Kaylee pulls her hand back.

It doesn't take long for Inara to recover - it never does - and then a wicked, promising curve overtakes her mouth and she rolls Kaylee over and holds her there, never letting go of her hips. Inara likes to kiss Kaylee everywhere, and this time she lingers on Kaylee's belly, dropping kisses in no pattern Kaylee knows. She jumps right over the good parts for now and moves to the insides of Kaylee's thighs, teasing her with the tiniest nips. Inara never leaves a mark on Kaylee; sometimes she walks the line.

Kaylee squirms and the words "'Nara, _please,_" ghost out of her mouth as she exhales and Inara finally, finally moves to kiss Kaylee where she really wants it. Kaylee's world becomes Inara's skilled lips and tongue working just there, between Kaylee's legs, until the pressure builds beyond Kaylee's ability to contain it in her body and she is light everywhere. Kaylee likes menfolk fine, but no boy's ever made her fly apart like Inara can. Makes sense, that another woman would have the sure touch that does just what Kaylee craves.

They kiss some more, lazy, when Inara's head is on the pillow beside Kaylee's again. Sense tells Kaylee that it's only the sweat on their bodies shining in the candlelight, though she'd swear it was stardust from the tingling in her skin. After they're quiet for a bit, Inara says, "Anywhere but here?"

Kaylee's eyes fall closed as she thinks. She opens them again, meeting Inara's gaze, and knows she's cheating, just this once, as she whispers, "No. Here."


End file.
